Jeff Stephens

I’m building my Tribed team. Are you in?

// November 18th, 2011 // No Comments » // Banking business models, Being an entrepreneur, Careers, Jeff Stephens, New banking ideas, Startups, Tribed, Wag: The Bank for Dog Fanatics

I’m in the process of assembling my startup team to help me build Tribed. I’m looking for a small number of great people to join my crusade and bring engaging financial services experiences to niche communities (like Wag). The most important thing is that my team members:

• Share my passion for Tribed’s vision
• Are inspired by the chance to to make their mark on our industry-altering business concept
• Have startup experience

The two main areas of expertise/roles I am looking for team members for are: Operations and Technology, and Partnership Development. I’ve put a brief description of each on Tribed’s site athttp://www.niche-banking.com/collaborate/.

And please note: you don’t have to have banking industry experience to be part of our team.

If either of these profiles are a fit for you, drop me a line at j@niche-banking.com.

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What if? Re-intermediation in banking

// April 8th, 2011 // No Comments » // Banking, Banking business models, Banking business strategy, Banks, Credit union business strategy, Innovation, New banking ideas, What if?

As I was sitting in the presentation by Terry Jones, founder of Travelocity.com yesterday at the EO Texas University, I was reflecting on the overall trend Terry pointed out about how we’ve seen such an emergency of do-it-yourself (DIY) culture in the past several years–thanks to the Internet. Travel agents are obviously just about obsolete now because of this DIY movement.

It’s similar in banking.Thanks to the Internet, consumers can shop for the best rates, products and services online, and then after making a selection, take action. They can do it all by themselves, without any real help from the individual banks they are considering.

So I got to thinking, “what if….”

(Note: as with all my “what if” ideas, I’m not saying the following is necessarily a good idea–I’m just saying it’s an idea that should at least be pondered for a few minutes if you advocate innovation in financial services)

What if there were a layer of “banking agents”? Would they be able to add any value to the consumer or the bank, and thus earn revenue? Is there money to be made stepping into the middle of what is otherwise a DIY situation? Here are a few quick ideas I had:

• Buyer’s Agent: There is a (small) market for car buying agents–people who have established relationships with car dealers, and can help consumers get the best prices, sourced from a large network of dealers, without price haggling. What if a banking agent could develop special relationships with banks and credit unions, and be able to offer special exclusive deals to consumers who worked with that agent? The consumer would be willing to pay a reasonable fee for that. This model would work if….
• …The agent could guarantee the delivery of a certain volume of business to the banks and credit unions. It would like being an independent sales rep for the bank and credit union, and the financial institution would be willing to pay a commission for those sales.
• Commercial Loan Participations. A banking agent could be a great resource for coordinating the funding of large loans that individual financial institutions couldn’t or wouldn’t want to fund.  It’s likely both the borrower and the lender would pay for this matchmaking and coordination.
• Continuous Evaluation: A banking agent could continuously evaluate his/her client’s banking relationships (for both deposits and loans), and proactively create better deals and arrangements with other banks, and then let the customer know when it was ready. The customer would find value in this and would pay accordingly.

What are your ideas? Let’s add to this list. Or, on the flip side, feel free to disagree!

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Would banks change their business models even if they knew how?

// February 28th, 2011 // No Comments » // Banking business models, Banking business strategy, Entrepreneurial Lessons, Innovation, New banking ideas

I am currently reading Business Model Generation:  A Handbook for Visionaries, Game Changers, and Challengers by Alex Osterwalder and Yves Pigneur. I’m just at the beginning, but it’s a great book so far.

I’ve often pondered the need for a business model revolution in the banking industry. Until now, I always thought the problem was that bankers wouldn’t know how to evolve (or completely change their business model). But now, the book has me realizing this question is only half of the real issue.

The other half of the question is:  ”If a bank knew how to evolve or change its business model…would it?” In other words, would it have the guts? Would it have the resolve to stick out a painful transition? Would it be willing to go against the grain and be a champion of change?

This is an entirely different question. Deep thoughts.

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Tradition in Banking

// October 27th, 2010 // No Comments » // Banking, Banks, Innovation, New banking ideas, Traditional banking

I would apologize for the cynical nature of this post, but I know you readers are used to it by now. Plus, this is just downright funny. From the people at Despair.com (I know you’ve seen some of their work before) comes “Tradition.” Why not order a 24×30″ poster for your break room? Place your orders here.

Perhaps the funniest part is how I came across this particular item: I was talking to an entrepreneurial friend about banking, and without my prompting, he pulled this up on his phone. I think that says something about the financial industry!

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ABA Banking Journal Publishes My Book Review of “Rework”

// October 13th, 2010 // 1 Comment » // Banking, Books I'm reading, Jeff Stephens, New banking ideas, Non-technical innovation

As you may already know about me, there are a couple things I believe strongly:

1. Bankers need to think more like entrepreneurs and less like bankers
2. I love to help bankers identify business lessons learned from other non-banking industries, and apply them to banking

To help achieve these two things, I’ve long been planning to create a book club and/or reading group for entrepreneurial bankers. That’s why I’m excited to announce that the American Bankers Association’s ABA Banking Journal online has published a review I wrote of the business book, Rework, by Jason Fried and David Hansson of 37Signals.

Read my review of Rework for bankers here.

To whet your appetite for the review…

Rework is probably not a book that will be read proactively by many bankers…although I’m hoping to change that. Most bankers will say “this book is written for startups and new economy companies–this will never work in the banking world.” And they, of course, would be wrong. There is a lot of great content in Rework that bankers can apply to their businesses.  With its concisely written chapters and simple-yet-profound and seemingly contrarian messages, the book reads very quickly in about three hours.

In the review, I explore three main concepts that emerge from the book:

1. Prioritize your work
2. Say no
3. Be real, and be yourself

Read the review of Rework now. And please email me to let me know if you’d be interested in being a member of my to-be-developed business book club for bankers.

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Free Webinar on Experiential Branding for Banks and Credit Unions

// June 30th, 2010 // No Comments » // Banks, Brands and Branding, Creative Brand Communications, Credit Union, Jeff Stephens, New banking ideas, Presentations

If you didn’t see it over at CBC’s bank marketing blog, I’m going to be hosting a webinar on July 27 at 11 am PST for one hour, covering one of my most popular topics: Experiential Branding for Banks and Credit Unions.  This webinar will be based on the presentations I deliver as a speaker at bank and credit union conferences around the country.  Here’s a brief synopsis:

“Powerful financial brands can be more than seen with the eyes–they are experienced by customers, employees and the community with all five senses. Jeff Stephens will provide an introduction to how banks and credit unions can use experiential brand development philosophies to create engagement and break from the bonds of a commoditized banking industry.”

Here are the details–I hope you will join us:

Tuesday, July 27, 11am PST / 2pm EST
50 minutes; 10 minutes Q&A
Price: Free
Max Attendees: 15

To register, email webinars@creative-brand.com

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Affiliate Marketing in Banking

// November 18th, 2009 // No Comments » // Banking, Innovation, Jeff Stephens, New banking ideas, Non-technical innovation

As I was reading something businessy lately, a question popped up in my mind:  why isn’t there affiliate marketing in banking?

Maybe there is, in a few cases, on a B2B level—you might argue LendingTree is affiliate marketing for lenders.  But that’s not what I mean.  There’s not, to my knowledge, any affiliate marketing program that could leverage the millions of retail customers out there. For instance, how many Bank of America customers have blogs or websites? Probably millions. Why not take a page from Amazon.com’s book (pun intended) and set up a killer affiliate program to drive traffic to the bank and kick back a reward to the referring site for accounts opened online?

I think I know why.

Because that’s not what bankers do.

Because that’s not how banking works.

And because, likely, nobody has ever really thought about it.

If you can’t tell already from my first few posts on this blog, one of my big pet peeves is that bankers don’t tend to look at business concepts (like affiliate marketing) and try to figure out how it might apply in their industry.

In my opinion, the best and most important activity any entrepreneurial banker can do, is this:

Look at other industries, see what’s successful, and then ask, “how can I apply this to banking?”

I’m not here to tell you affiliate marketing should be the future of banking.  I don’t have an opinion at this point, because I haven’t given it much thought.  Maybe I can think it over and write another post about that.  But I do know this:  at least I remembered to ask myself “how can this apply to banking?”  The answer to that question is less important than the fact that it was asked in the first place.  That’s how innovation happens.

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